So, we're getting some gamers who think it might be a good idea to try to reverse engineer games and their save game files. There serveral reasons why this is bad:

When you install a game you normally (or in fact always) have to agree to certain terms and conditions before you are allowed to install the title. In these terms and conditions you are prevented from attempting to reverse engineer any part of the game, so in fact in doing so you are breaking the law.

You are very unlikely to be able to reverse engineer certain components because they have been encrypted to prevent tampering, so your efforts will be futile.

Reverse engineering is a skill beyond a lot of programmers. I used to work with games technology as well and am very familiar with what is involved, and trust me, it is very much beyond you - especially if you have to come on a forum asking how it could be done.

You will never end up with the original source.

Games are invariably built on some SDK, so when you are tampering with game files of any kind you may also be violating the terms of use of the actual SDK in addition to the terms and conditions of use of the game. It is not unheard of for large game companies to hunt down organized hackers and ruin their lives for habitually hacking games. Don't do it.

Also now with clients like Steam they have mechanisms in place to spot file tampering, which they market as 'VAC Secure'. If you tamper with these files and you alert the system your account could be permanently banned and you will lose access to the games that you've paid for. Secondly, even the copy protection systems that are to prevent copying may also spot file tampering as well which means that all your efforts will be wasted.

Don't do it, the system is smarter than you and it isn't clever to crack games. Many, including myself, don't know why someone would take their hard-earned cash and by a game only to do everything they can to cheat. Just don't bother if you're not going to actually play the game!

Anyway, such activity is not supported here on DIC and don't PM me asking to tell you how or even when it's possible because I won't. :)

People need to have more respect for those of us that put all the time and effort in to developing these games. We dont pour all of our creative juices into a game just so some D.I.C. Head will go hack a game and (ruin it for others if its an online game)